Helpful hints and friendly notes from the world-acclaimed photography instructors at BetterPhoto.com

December 22, 2011

Photoshop Tip: How to Replace a Sky

There are two things about this picture that are good and one thing that’s terrible. I like the low perspective from which took the picture, and I also like the ears flared out. Both of these make the huge elephant seem even more impressive. The terrible aspect of this image is the white sky. It’s very distracting.

To replace this sky is impossible using any of the selection tools in Photoshop because the fine grasses blend with the background in such a way that they can’t be separated. None of the other software programs like Topaz Remask 3 or Mask Pro 4 by onOne could do justice with this scene, either. I could make the sky a solid blue color with Nik Software’s Viveza 2, but that wouldn’t be appropriate. The diffused light calls for an overcast sky to make this look believable.

There is only one solution. I used a layer mask in Photoshop to produce the image below.

(c) Jim Zuckerman

Here is the process:

1. Choose a sky full of gray clouds. It should be similar in resolution to the elephant photo.

2. Copy the clouds to the clipboard with Select > all, and then Edit > copy.

3. Paste the clouds on top of the elephant photo with Edit > paste.

4. Make sure the foreground and background color boxes at the bottom of the tools palette are black/white, respectively.

5. Make a layer mask using Layer > layer mask > reveal all (or use the shortcut — the small icon immediately to the right of the fx icon at the bottom of the layers palette).

6. Choose the gradient tool. Drag the cursor from the bottom of the clouds to the top. The bottom portion of the clouds disappear gradually, as you can see, leaving the elephant and the grass exposed but covering the sky. You can vary the demarcation line between the clouds and the clear bottom portion of the image by varying how long you drag the cursor in the photo. If you drag it an inch, the line will be hard. If you drag it four inches, the line will be softer, more gradual.

7. There will still be some clouds on the elephant, so now choose the brush tool and brush them away. If you make a mistake and brush some of the sky away, reverse the black/white color boxes so they are now white/black and paint the clouds back. When you do this touch up, work at 200% or so.